More than 39 million people live in Canada—from British Columbia all the way to Newfoundland, and according to Canada’s 2021 census, 53.3% of these citizens identify as Christian.
Like many other nations around the world, however, biblical literacy in the Great White North is plummeting.
“Canada was mainly built on Christian values, but over the years, this has declined,” said Steve Khan, Director of Operations at Our Daily Bread Ministries (ODBM)’s Canada office.
According to a study by the Canada Bible League surveying 4,500 Canadian believers, 75% seldom or never read their Bibles. Only 25% strongly believe that Scripture is relevant to modern life, and 11% speak about the the Scriptures outside of church.
So how does ODBM’s Canadian team combat this Scripture-reading crisis? By partnering with churches to spread the Good News.
In May of 2024, ODBM Canada created a new “Ambassador Program.” Many ODBM readers in the United States may recognize Ambassadors as volunteers who have ordered large quantities of the Our Daily Bread devotional and distribute them in their community. For example, US Air Force veteran Bob Morris has distributed more than 55,000 devotionals over 30 years.
Canada’s Ambassador Program looks slightly different, however.
“We already have a lot volunteers who distribute Our Daily Bread,” says Steven. “We call them ‘partners,’ but our Marketing Director Steve Harbridge and his team wanted to collaborate with churches to give them more biblically engaging materials to help encourage their members to read Scripture.”
Therefore, ODBM’s Canadian team collaborated with church contacts—who they call “Ambassadors”—to order, display, and distribute Discovery Series booklets in their congregations.
To make things easy for these Canadian Ambassadors, Steven’s office even sends them a large display they can use to distribute ODBM resources.
“In just two months, we’ve partnered with over 100 Canadian Ambassadors in different churches,” said Steven. “The response has been really positive.”
But this partnership isn’t stopping there. ODBM’s Canada office has a goal of signing up 1,000 Ambassadors and distributing French resources as part of this program.
“We’re also distributing Our Daily Bread Publishing (ODBP) titles, too,” said Steven,“for churches that have libraries.”
Whether Canadians dig into Our Daily Bread devotional booklets or longer Our Daily Bread Publishing books, the aim is to encourage people to engage with Scripture.
“We want the people of Canada to know who the true Christ is,” said Steven. “There is a God who loves them and desires to have a relationship with them.”
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